Promises must be Kept

Yunus Dar

There is a sense of dissatisfaction among the armed forces against the government on a range of issues. For one, One Rank One Pension (OROP) is back in the spotlight with defence veterans feeling disappointed with its half-baked implementation. In another instance, some segments of the armed forces have been unhappy by the rejection of the long-standing demand for granting higher Military Service Pay (MSP) for over 1.12 lakh military personnel including Junior Commissioned Officers of the Army. And in yet another instance, the Chief of Army Staff Gen. Bipin Rawat’s recent statement warning soldiers against trying to ‘feign’ disability to avoid duty or get benefits, was widely criticised by the defence veterans.

More than four years ago when he became the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi had promised to implement OROP. He did, but as the veterans claim, it wasn’t implemented in its true spirit. That’s the reason they have continued to protest for its complete implementation.

In a reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on 19 December 2018, the government said it had implemented OROP with effect from 1 July 2014. As on 30 September 2017, a sum of Rs 10,795.4 crores had been released to 20,60,220 defence forces pensioners/family pensioners in four instalments towards the arrears. It also said that it had appointed One-Member Judicial Committee (OMJC) on OROP to investigate anomalies, if any, arising out of implementation of OROP. The committee submitted its report on 26 October 2016. And now, it has constituted another internal committee to examine the recommendations of the previous one. This seems to